POLL: Community scaling off in Prodigal Sun PVE

lukewin

Community scaling is when the levels on a node go up due to everyone doing well. Towards the end of a sub, the Normal nodes normally turn Hard/Deadly. The Easy nodes normally get easier and may turn Trivial. These are unofficial statements, but generally held beliefs regarding community scaling.

With the event a little more than halfway over, I think we can honestly answer. These are the questions I'm curious to know, and think the feedback would help the devs. There are 4 groups of questions, so although you wouldn't be able to break down what type of player has what type of opinion via the poll, you can do so in a comment.

Here's how I voted
Change for the better
No change at all (Placement)
Playing more than I normally do (due to being able to grind the nodes more)
I am a T2 PVE player (capable of this, and currently in 2nd)

MarvelMan

Where is the option for not playing it at all?



That said, Ive heard that it is much better as if you play the levels go up, but if you wipe....they dont. Seems like the way it should be.

Ducky

I haven't really been playing this event much as I don't need any of the rewards. When the need arises, I can win PvE brackets (I won my Carnage bracket by a healthy margin). From the little I have played, my scaling starts off about the same, but doesn't skyrocket. Is this due to the change in community scaling or because I am not grinding the nodes to dust at the end of the sub, I am not sure.

lukewin

MarvelMan wrote:

Where is the option for not playing it at all?



That said, Ive heard that it is much better as if you play the levels go up, but if you wipe....they dont. Seems like the way it should be.

Added before I saw your post, but glad I could add it before anyone cast their vote.

lukewin

DuckyV wrote:

I haven't really been playing this event much as I don't need any of the rewards. When the need arises, I can win PvE brackets (I won my Carnage bracket by a healthy margin). From the little I have played, my scaling starts off about the same, but doesn't skyrocket. Is this due to the change in community scaling or because I am not grinding the nodes to dust at the end of the sub, I am not sure.

According to the June Q&A video, they turned off the system completely. They didn't refer to it as community scaling, but that's what most people think they were referring to. I am grinding even more than I usually do, because I want the Prof X blue, and because the nodes aren't scaling out of control. Normally, I don't grind optimally, so my nodes tend to have a timer of between 1d8h and 1d16h left, so 2 possible hits to grind to 1 pt. This PVE, I can do an additional hit, and have most nodes with a timer between 1d16h and 1d23h, usually less than 100 pts in the node. I also hadn't seen any Deadly nodes yet.

Unknown

Ahem:

NO SCALING IS AWESOME WHOOOOO
NO SCALING IS AWESOME WHOOOOO:D
NO SCALING IS AWESOME WHOOOOO
NO SCALING IS AWESOME WHOOOOO
NO SCALING IS AWESOME WHOOOOO:D
NO SCALING IS AWESOME WHOOOOO
NO SCALING IS AWESOME WHOOOOO:D
NO SCALING IS AWESOME WHOOOOO

I voted change for the better, but it's hard to tell anything else b/c no one cares about beast prizes

Linkster79

As somebody who has a life and works long hours scaling turned off is the best thing to happen to PvE. Now I can get home from a long day at work, spend time with the family knowing that nodes have not jumped massively through anything I have directly done or not done. I don't play hardcore like some as like I said I don't have the time so I play for fun and get what rewards I can.

stowaway

I'm usually a t10 PvE player. I came in (a distant) 11th in the Carnage event, which sometimes happens in the new character PvEs, but in this case it was life intervening more than the competition being stiff. I'm in 5th place in Prodigal Sun, which is around where I normally am.

I find two things different about this PvE (compared to other PvEs where the competition is low). The first is that I'm playing more at the end of the sub. Previously, when I thought a node was going to become impossible due to community scaling, I would grind it down to nothing during my second clear, and then ignore it for the rest of the event. Now I'm waiting and doing the final grind all together. So I don't think I'm playing more total. . . just more in a single batch at the end.

The second is that I'm not having to use boosts to clear the hardest nodes, so I'm making a lot more iso per sub. That's as much to do with the health pack change as the scaling change.

Taganov

I'm typically T50/T100. No change in placement but I haven't had any "kitty this game" moments because the nodes aren't insane. I've wiped a couple times, but I felt like my play or team composition was sloppy, and not like I was banging my head against a wall. Good change all in all.

Nick441234

Definitely better. The last few hours of events I was finding the hardest battles had gone far out of reach of my roster. Now I can still fight them, and albeit lose sometimes, I'm still able to win.

slidecage

made PVE fun once again was able to clear all nods Usually only half the nods before i hit double my highest... Highest people i got 88 normal they are 160 by the middle node and 300 at the highest nod

This time highest nod is round 110 to 120.....

i usually dont even play PVE that much just to make top 150 is good enough this time EVEN WITHOUT CARNAGE took top 50 in side subs 3 times,, something i have not been able to do for months.

KEEP IT THIS WAY

Unknown

I'm all for keeping it this way. Before the community scaling went into effect I could usually manage to complete all of the progression rewards with some effort. Since community scaling started I haven't been able to get anywhere near finishing. I haven't completed all of the progression rewards on Prodigal Sun yet, but I think I'll be able to get there this time.

Please keep the scaling turned off!

Unknown

I'm performing worse than previously, but I think that's because Im not used to the opponents, and had gotten too used to fighting off the Dark Avengers repeatedly in PVE.

I'm still managing at least one clear a day, with repeat runs of the easier nodes, so I can see a difference, but others apparently are as well, which is why Im falling further on the chart.

grunth13

My starting nodes are all the same. I am maybe scaling about 30 levels at most from the beginning of the sub. I do 3 clears optimally at 8 hours and one clear about an hour before the sub ends to get top 50. Nothing is turning deadly or even hard. It is much more enjoyable. I have been wiped 2-3 times because of a horrible cascade or bad board, but I just repeat it and have no problem with the node. Still don't like the competitive aspect of PVE but it is much better when I don't have to fight hours upon hours a day to get a good placement.

Ebolamonkey84

It does seem a little bit easier, but personal scaling is starting to kick my butt. In yesterday's sub, my three hard nodes ended up about ~80 levels higher than they started, but my essentials only went up about 30 levels. This is with me doing three full clears followed by grinding everything 5-6 times.

babinro

Voted:
No Change At All
No Change At All
No Change At All
Top 50 PvE

I never tracked my node levels for the last time I played prodigal sun so it's extremely hard to tell just how much easier or more difficult things are by comparison.

Ultimately, I can't say I've noticed any meaningful change at all. It's entirely possible that some nodes are actually 20-30 levels easier but when you're talking about nodes in the 270-325 level range then it makes little difference. Nothing comes off as easy enough for me to attempt new team combo's so the end result is unchanged.

Even if levels did drop it likely just means I'm taking a bit less damage which translates to a marginal increase in personal scaling to compensate. Assuming my understanding of that system is correct.

In summary: I'm completely indifferent to this change. Do whatever makes people happy.

Malcrof

gliding to an easy T50 finish.. but last few releases i was top 25, top 10. Love the new scaling, less health packs, can try different teams with virtually no consequences... but it also means that being in a slice that fills fast.. you have to grind yourself silly to get T25-T10 now.

and not to be a buzzkill... but there was a quiet sense of self accomplishment beating a black deadly community scaled board... even if it was only for 100 points...

but i will take this over that anyday!

Philly79

I gotta say guys I am really liking the no scaling. I can actually see my personal scaling go up by the match so you get an idea of what to expect. It is nice to do a clear and come back to roughly the same nodes rather than finish up on normal only to come back and see most nodes worth anything have scaled way out of control. I am all for using this new system.

TxMoose

voted no difference in any of it, but I like that if I wipe, I don't have to worry about the node increasing while I wait for healthpacks to rejuvenate - which doesn't have to happen any more anyway, but still. I like it for that reason alone.

CrookedKnight

I don't really feel qualified to say because I don't need any of the placement or progression rewards and am just playing for top 300 in each sub so I can pull the lever on the Carnage slot machine a few extra times. Just throwing that out there as a reason why data may be skewed when the devs go to review it. (especially if they compare participation here to the upcoming Carnage re-offer.)

TxMoose

CrookedKnight wrote:

I don't really feel qualified to say because I don't need any of the placement or progression rewards and am just playing for top 300 in each sub so I can pull the lever on the Carnage slot machine a few extra times. Just throwing that out there as a reason why data may be skewed when the devs go to review it. (especially if they compare participation here to the upcoming Carnage re-offer.)

not sure why they picked beast here - if they wanted a test, I would have gone with a mid-tier character that hasn't been seen in a while - something like torch or punisher. beast/cage/fist/doc ock, those are outlier events and not 'norm'.

I play to t50 in each sub for the hp. hp is such gold now, especially with me starting to get to 1000 in pvp - shields have to be paid for some how. half my alliance played to the mags progression and stopped altogether after that.